2011 Newsletter

NEWSLETTER 2011
Sociology
at American University
Contents
From the Chair.................................1
Dr. Esther Chow Named
Professor Emerita of
Sociology..........................................2
Sociology Legacy Fund
Established to Honor Retired
Faculty and Staff..............................2
CHRS Expands AU’s Capacity for
Health Research...............................3
Department News and Notes....4-7
Newest Alumni................................7

Transitions.........................................8
From the Chair
I am ·erv pleased to be writing mv £rst
newsletter column after joining the faculty of
American University almost a year ago. The year
has been a busy one, not just for me as I have tried
to learn all of the responsibilities of being a chair,
but for the department as a whole as we move
forward with implementing our strategic plan to
develop a new research focus on health and society.
In the fall we were busy conducting two successful
searches, resulting in the hiring of Michael Bader,
who will develop a program of research on
residence, mobility, and health, and Randa Serhan,
who will take over as director of the Arab Studies
program. We launched the new Center on Health,
Risk, and Society (CHRS), aimed at building an
interdisciplinary group of scholars at AU interested
in the social aspects of health and facilitating the
development of related collaborative research
projects. The department also participated in the
development of an innovative BA/BS program in
public health that will be launched in the fall. The
Department of Sociology will collaborate with the
Department of Biology in overseeing the major.
We are proud of our 30 minors and 76 majors,
26 of whom graduated with a BA this spring. As
in the past, our majors held a very strong presence
at the Robyn Rafferty Mathias Student Research
Conference within the College of Arts and Sciences.
Students presented papers on topics as diverse as the
challenges facing the partners of individuals in the
armed services to an analysis of gender norms as
revealed in Czech magazine advertisements. Nineteen
students were inducted into Alpha Kappa Delta,
the international sociological honor society, and
£·e students were presented awards at our annual
Sociology Day in April. Our graduate students
have excelled as well. A number of our 21 master’s
students are entering PhD programs in the fall
supported by scholarships. Most of our remaining
doctoral students have completed or will complete
their degrees over the summer.
Department of Sociology
College of Arts & Sciences
American University
Department of Sociology
4400 Massachusetts Ave, NW
Washington, D.C. 20016-8029
202-885-2475
202-885-2477 (fax)
[email protected]
www.american.edu/cas/sociology
In the pages that follow, you will see that our
faculty have contributed extensively to the discipline,
publishing books as well as articles in some of the
top journals in their sub£elds. successíullv competing
for grants and contracts, presenting at professional
meetings, taking leadership positions in professional
organizations, excelling in the classroom, mentoring
undergraduate and graduate students, working
diligently to serve local, national, and international
communities, and winning awards for their work. With
mixed feelings, we celebrate two faculty milestones,
Esther Chow’s retirement and transition to emeritus
faculty after 37 years of scholarship, teaching, and
service in the department and the discipline, and
John Drysdale’s retirement after providing three
years of vision and leadership as chair and serving
an additional year on the faculty, among other things,
helping to ease my transition to the position. While we
are sad to see them go, you will see that we are setting
up a legacy fund to honor them and many of our past
colleagues who over the years have given so much to
the department and to our students.
Finally, I would like to thank each and every one
of my colleagues for their support, guidance, and
extraordinary commitment to the department, in ways
big and small. A very special thanks, as well, to Sandy
Linden, whose knowledge of the department and
university and ability to multi-task has been invaluable
to me.
-Kim Blankenship
American University Department of Sociology Newsletter 2
Sociology Legacy Fund
Established to Honor
Retired Faculty and Staff
With the retirements of Esther Ngan-ling Chow and Russell
Stone, the sociology department established the Sociology Legacy
Fund to honor the contributions to a sociological community
--within and outside our institution--of our past and recent senior
faculty members and staff. Other fund honorees include John
Drysdale, Samih Farsoun, Susan Hoecker-Drysdale, Ken Kusterer,
Gert Mueller, Karen Petersen, John Scott, Jurg Siegenthaler, and
Austin Van der Slice.
The fund will support AU sociology students in a variety of
endeavors related to learning and scholarship. Our faculty has already
contributed to this fund, and we are encouraging alumni, current
students, and friends to join us in launching this important effort.
In addition to the Sociology Legacy Fund, there are two other
funds dedicated to supporting the Department of Sociology.
The Kianda Bell Award supports graduate student research and
scholarship in the area of social justice. This award was established
in honor of Kianda Bell, a doctoral student in the department,
who passed away unexpectedly. The second is the Sociology
Department’s General Fund, which is a discretionary fund that can
be used for a wide range of activities.
You can make a gift to the fund by clipping the giving coupon
on the back of this newsletter and returning it in the enclosed
postage-paid envelope.
Dr. Esther Chow
Named Professor
Emerita of Sociology
Esther Ngan-ling
Chow has retired and is
now Professor Emerita
of Sociology. She has
been a member of our
faculty for the past 37
years. A feminist scholar,
researcher, teacher,
and activist, her work
and scholarship on
migration and citizenship,
globalized research
on intersectionality,
participatory action
research, gender and
development, and
transnational feminist
practices is recognized worldwide. She is also recognized as an early
pioneer in scholarship on the intersectionality of race, class, and
gender, particularly in the case of Asian American women.
Her scholarship has been recognized with numerous awards
including the Fulbright New Century Scholar award in 2004-2005,
the Stuart Rice Award for Career Achievement (2006), and the
Morris Rosenberg Award for Recent Achievement (2002) from the
District of Columbia Sociological Society. Dr. Chow’s renowned
scholarship is matched by a passion for teaching, mentoring,
and activism. The Distinguished Faculty Award (2002) from the
Oí£ce oí Multicultural Aííairs and International Student Ser·ices
at American University and the Outstanding Teaching Award
(2007) from the Asia and Asian America Section of the American
Sociological Association recognize her teaching abilities. Over
the course of her career, Dr. Chow has served on master’s and
PhD committees, mentoring over 100 graduate students. Her
mentorship has been recognized by the Mentoring Award (2000)
and the Feminist Activism Award (2008) from the Sociologists
for Women in Society. Perhaps most notably, the Sociologists for
Women in Society recently named a Dissertation Scholarship after
Dr. Chow and Mary Joyce Green.
Dr. Chow has also served in positions of leadership in many
of the discipline’s professional associations. Her elected positions
include member-at-large on the Council of the American
Sociological Association, Chair of the Asia and Asian America
Section (ASA), and Vice President of the Eastern Sociological
Society. She was the copresident of the Research Committee 32,
“Women in Society” of the International Sociological Association.
Dr. Chow has also served as an editorial board member for Gender
& Society, International Sociology, Teaching Sociology, and the ASA Rose
Monograph Series on sociology and social policy.
Beyond the academy, she has worked tirelessly to establish the
True Light Foundation for poverty reduction and educational
empowerment for children in rural China.
Her publications include more than 40 journal articles, book
chapters, and several books including Women, the Family, and Policy:
A Global Perspective (1994), Race, Class and Gender: Common Bonds and
Difference Voices (1996), Transforming Gender and Development in East
Asia (2002), to name a few.
The Department of Sociology’s longstanding recognition as
a location for scholarship on intersectionality of race, class and
gender, social inequality, migration, family and work, gender and
development, globalization, and policy studies has much to do
with Dr. Chow’s presence over these years.
American University Department of Sociology Newsletter 3
CHRS Expands AU’s Capacity
for Health Research
By Sarah Okorie
The Center on Health, Risk, and Society (CHRS) was launched
in August 2010 under the leadership of Kim Blankenship
and Monica Biradavolu. The center’s mission is to build an
interdisciplinary community of scholars interested in conducting
research on the social dimensions of health and health-related
risks, especially on their roots in social inequality, and on structural
interventions aimed at addressing them.
Currently, the center supports over $5 million in externally
funded research mostly related to HIV/AIDS. Two research
projects are supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
One project examines the implementation and impact of
community led structural interventions to address HIV risk
among female sex workers in India, and the other project compiles
and synthesizes a range of data to analyze the impact of HIV
prevention programming in India. On the latter project, American
University is the coordinating institution in a consortium with the
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Centre
lospitalier aí£lie Uni·ersitaire de Ouebec. A third major project
is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and
focuses on the impact of movement between the criminal justice
system and the community on HIV risk and the extent to which it
accounts for race disparities in HIV/AIDS.
1he center established oí£ces on AU`s 1enlev campus and
expanded its staff in the past year. Nimesh Dhungana was hired as
Research Manager and Amanda Nothaft joined CHRS as Scholar in
Residence. In addition, the center supports several research assistants
including sociology graduate students Sarah Okorie, Elizabeth
Puloka, and Alex Shaheen; and in summer 2011, undergraduate
students from institutions across the US will serve as CHRS interns
as part of a NIDA funded summer research program.
To build an interdisciplinary community at AU and foster
collaborative scholarship on health-related issues, CHRS held
weekly “Getting to Know Your Colleagues” seminars at which
faculty from across the various schools and departments at AU
presented their research. The seminars were also a forum to
discuss strategies for grant development, keep abreast of debates
in different disciplines, and brainstorm on ongoing health research
scholarship needs at the university and beyond. The center also
organized workshops for two ongoing projects, Project Parivartan,
the India sex worker project (February 2011) and SHARRPP, the
criminal justice project (May 2011). The seminars and retreats
attracted faculty and students across disciplines and schools within
AU (Department of Sociology, Department of Economics, School
of International Service, School of Public Affairs, the Kogod
School of Business, and the Washington College of Law), from
other universities (George Washington University, Howard, Yale,
and Duke), as well as health institutions in the larger DC metro
area. Many new ideas for analyses and collaborative research
projects were generated.
The center also sponsored (or cosponsored) guest speakers.
Dr. Alan Greenberg, Director of the DC Developmental Center
for AIDS Research (DC D-CFAR) spoke in September 2010. The
DC D-CFAR promotes DC-based HIV/AIDS research and aims
to develop the next generation of HIV/AIDS investigators in
Washington, DC. His talk covered DC D-FAR’s upcoming goals,
mission, and ideas for future research. In October 2010, Dr. Jeanne
Flavin (SPA/MS ’91; CAS/PHD ’95), Associate Professor of
Sociology at Fordham University, read excerpts from her book
Our Bodies, Our Crimes: The Policing of Women’s Reproduction in America
and facilitated a discussion on reproductive justice. Her book won
the 2010 Sex and Gender Section Distinguished Book Award from
the American Sociological Association. Dr. Amy Best, Associate
Professor of Sociology at George Mason University gave a talk
titled “Fast Food Kids, Troubling Inequalities: Bodies, Space and
Food Consumption in the lives of Young People,” which was
cosponsored by Alpha Kappa Delta: the International Sociology
Honor Society.
In the coming year, CHRS hopes to develop additional resources
in support of research on the social dimensions of health, including
an extensive Web site, a library of software, internships, and
bibliographic resources. It will also continue to organize a seminar
series and bring guest speakers to AU. To learn more about the
center and its activities, or to become involved, please visit the
CHRS Web site at american.edu/cas/sociology/chrs.
Department of Sociology News and Notes
American University Department of Sociology Newsletter
4
Monica Biradavolu joined the faculty in July 2010 as Assistant
Research Professor in Sociology and Assistant Director of the Center
on Health, Risk, and Society (CHRS). She helped assemble a team
at CHRS and worked to bring together faculty from across campus
whose research interests are in health. She continues her work on
Project Parivartan, a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded
research project in southern India based at CHRS. She is a coauthor
on three papers published in the last year which appeared in Social
Science and Medicine, AIDS Care, and Public Health Reports. She presented
a paper at the International Sociological Association’s 17th World
Congress of Sociology meeting in Sweden.
Kim Blankenship has almost completed her £rst vear as chair oí
the department and director of the new Center on Health, Risk,
and Society (see related story). Among other things, she successfully
transferred three grants supporting large, collaborative HIV/AIDS
related research projects (see related story) and collaborated with
a colleague at Temple University’s law school on a project for the
United Nations Development Program reviewing evidence and
interventions related to gender-based violence and HIV risk and
prevention. She presented at various professional meetings and
published eight articles in Social Science and Medicine, Public Health
Reports, Sexually Transmitted Infections, AIDS Care, and other journals,
many of these in collaboration with current or former post-
doctoral fellows and graduate students. In the fall, she participated
in the Social and Behavioral HIV Prevention Research Think
1ank organized bv the Oí£ce oí AIDS Research at the National
Institutes of Health (NIH). A major purpose of the workshop
was to identify new ways of bringing social science perspectives to
HIV/AIDS research (this effort to seriously embrace social science
in HIV/AIDS research at NIH is a welcome change). This summer,
she has been awarded a small diversity supplement to her NIDA
grant, which will allow her to support three undergraduate students
on paid internships and, hopefully, in the process, encourage them
to pursue careers in substance abuse/use research.
Andrea Malkin Brenner continues in her role as undergraduate
advisor, honors coordinator, and AU Abroad advisor. Dr. Brenner
also continues to oversee the undergraduate student internships in
sociology. This year she served on the editorial review board for SOC,
an introductory sociology textbook published by McGraw Hill. Dr.
Brenner is actively involved with The Barker Foundation, Maryland’s
oldest adoption agency and serves as a member of their board of
trustees and as the chair of their program evaluation committee.

Esther Ngan-ling Chow, now Professor Emerita, coedited the
book, Analyzing Gender, Intersectionality and Multiple Inequalities: Global,
Transnational and Local Contexts to be published by Emerald Press.
She also collaborated with Lin Tan of the Women’s Studies Institute
of China (All China Women’s Federation) and coedited a Chinese
book, Gender Equality and Social Transformation in a Global Context
(Beijing: Social Sciences Academic Press). She continues mentoring
several doctoral students and supervising their dissertation research
during this academic year.
Alan Dahl continues to teach Critical Social Thought and in the
fall 2011 will teach a new course, Power, Politics, and Society. His
current research (with Natalia Ruiz-Junco) investigates the role of
emotions in the Bread and Roses strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts
in 1912. Their paper “Milltown Emotions” was accepted for
presentation at the annual conference of the International Society
for Research on Emotions in Kyoto.
Bette Dickerson has been very busy during her sabbatical year.
During the winter break, she led an Alternative Break trip to Cape
Town, South Africa (see story, with undergraduate student Jenna
Lenskold, on the sociology Website). She developed a community-
based service-learning program based in South Africa for AU and
will take the £rst group oí students this summer. Additionallv.
she is a member of the newly formed AU Alternative Breaks
Haiti Compact and is developing avenues for college students
to contribute to rebuilding efforts by working with partners in
Haiti. In February, she presented three papers at the Eastern
Sociological Society, one with doctoral student Tekisha Everette.
She coauthored an entry in Gender and Women’s Leadership: A
Reference Handbook (SAGE Publications) with Jill Brantley and Pat
Lengermann, scholars in residence.
John Drysdale completed his term as department chair in summer
2010. He gave a plenary session speech on strategic planning in
academic departments under stress at the chair’s conference of
the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association
in Atlanta. He published an entry on Max Weber in The Concise
Encyclopedia of Sociology. He served as Past-President of the District
of Columbia Sociological Society in 2010-2011.
Susan Hoecker-Drysdale, Scholar in Residence, has published
a revised and expanded chapter on Harriet Martineau and her
contributions to sociology in the New Blackwell Companion to Major
Social Theorists. She has served as the chapter representative for the AU
Alpha Kappa Delta chapter from 2009-2011. She chaired the Stuart
A. Rice Award for Career Achievement for the District of Columbia
Sociological Society from 2009-2011. She is currently writing The
Feminist Tradition in Sociology under contract with Blackwell.

Susan McDonic has a book chapter, “Juggling the Religious
and the Secular” in Family, Friend or Foe: Religion and Philanthropy
(University of Indiana Press), forthcoming. Her current interests
broaden and deepen her research focus by beginning an
exploration into Buddhist International development processes
and philosophy. She has strengthened her ties with the Tibetan
Diaspora, traveling to Northern India as the faculty advisor on
the Alternative Break Program and acting as faculty contact
for Students for a Free Tibet. As an academic and beginning
£lmmaker she also £lmed and produced a promotional ·ideo
for The Tibet Hope Center, a local NGO in Northern India that
caters to the needs of the exile community.
Michelle Newton-Francis was elected to the council of the Body
and Embodiment section of the American Sociological Association
where she is also serving as chair of the graduate student best paper
FACULTY
American University Department of Sociology Newsletter
5
award. She continues serving as an editorial board member and
referee for Teaching Sociology. This spring, she received an AU online
course de·elopment grant to de·elop the department`s £rst online
course which she will teach this summer. In addition to revising
her dissertation chapters for publication, she is currently working
on a coedited volume with Salvador Vidal-Ortiz tentatively titled
!"#$%&'(")*+,%$"-.+/'#'-($01+/'-2")*#+-)2+/'3'$4"%)#.
Celine-Marie Pascale’s new book, Cartographies of Knowledge:
Exploring Qualitative Epistemologies was just released. She has
published two articles in Barataria: Revista Castellano-Manchega de
Ciencias and Sociological Routes and Political Roots. She was a guest
presenter at the Eastern Sociological Society and presented
papers at the American Sociological Association (ASA) and the
International Sociological Association (ISA). This summer, she will
present research from her new book on qualitative epistemology at
the ASA. She continues to serve as President of the ISA Research
Committee on Language & Society; in this capacity she is helping
to establish a new sociology journal on sociological studies of
language. Pascale will serve on the editorial board of Current
Sociology Monographs of the Sage Studies in International
Sociology book series.
Natalia Ruiz-Junco is working on a book on social theory and
emotions. Her work on Spanish social theorist George Santayana
was published this spring in the journal Studies in Symbolic Interaction.
In addition, a book chapter on autoethnography, coauthored with
Salvador Vidal-Ortiz, appears in the edited book New Directions
in Sociology: Essays on Theory and Methodology in the 21st Century. She
presented at the European Sociological Association’s Social Theory
coníerence in Prague. the Societv íor the Scienti£c Studv oí Religion.
and the Eastern Sociological Society. Ruiz-Junco received a CAS
Mellon Faculty Development grant to travel to Kyoto to present at
the International Society of Research on Emotion along with Alan
Dahl. She continues to serve as sociological theory editor of the
American Sociological Association Digital Library TRAILS (Teaching
Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology).
Rachel Robinson became an oí£cial aí£liate oí the department
and over the past year has enjoyed participating in the activities
oí the new (enter on lealth. Risk. and Societv. Aíter £nishing
£eldwork in Senegal and Nigeria. she has been analvzing data and
writing text for her book, Intimate Interventions, which details the
relationships between efforts to prevent pregnancy and to slow
the spread of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. As part of this project,
she wrote about the institutional history of the United Nations
Population Fund in support of an expert working group hosted by
the Center for Global Development.
Jurg Siegenthaler, Professor Emeritus, continues working in the
area of social policy analysis where he remains active in community
advocacy. He reports that in his “retirement,” he has served as
treasurer of the Friends of the State Park organization, mounted
several historical exhibits on community organizations, and helped
plan and run the annual Labor Day Bread and Roses Festival in
Lawrence, Massachusetts. He also coauthored a study of the Works
Progress Administration in 1930s Massachusetts and has consulted
on the design of pension plans.
Salvador Vidal-Ortiz was granted tenure and promoted to
associate professor in 2011 while completing his Fulbright award in
Bogotá, Colombia. He coedited a special issue of the journal Íconos:
Revista de Ciencias Sociales. titled low is Oueer 1hought oí in Latin
America?,” published by FLACSO—Ecuador (the Spanish acronym
FLACSO stands for the Latin American Faculty in Social Sciences,
a group of research centers in over a dozen Latin American
countries). His coedited book The Sexuality of Migration: Border
Crossings and Mexican Immigrant Men received both the American
Sociological Association’s Sociology of Sexualities Best Book
Award and an Honorary Mention from the Latin American Studies
Association’s Latino Studies Section. He is currently compiling a
coedited book titled: Latina/o LGBT Activism in the US and Puerto
Rico: A Social History. He was an alternate to a Ford Foundation
Post-Doctoral Fellowship. Dr. Vidal-Ortiz will be on a partial
sabbatical during the academic year 2011-12.
Dr. Chenyang Xiao continues to publish on China and the
environment in the journals Population and Environment and Society &
Natural Resources. Using data from the Gallup “Health of the Planet”
and “Earth Day” surveys, he is investigating, in one manuscript, the
relationship between environmental concern and attitudes toward
science and technology in the US, and in another, explaining gender
differences in concern for environmental problems. Yet another
project focuses on public understanding and attitudes toward global
climate change in the US and China. Because this particular research
requires a new cross-national survey, he is preparing a grant proposal
seeking funding. This summer, he will conduct a pilot study in China
to test the survey instrument.
In keeping with her interest in gender in post colonial societies,
Gay Young participated in the day-long seminar on economics,
politics, and violence in contemporary Mexico organized by
AU’s Center for Latin American and Latino Studies. She will
present another aspect of that research at the annual meetings
of the American Sociological Association this coming August
in Las Vegas as part of the section on Global and Transnational
Sociology. Her interest in feminist challenges to conventional
constructions of gender continues to take various forms. The
manuscript “Not winging it at Hooters: Conventions for
producing a cultural object of sexual fantasy,” coauthored with
Michelle Newton-Francis, is under review at the journal Social
Problems. She continues as the advisor to the DC young feminist
collective, Visions in Feminism. She served as the faculty advisor
for the Alternative Break trip to the West Bank and Israel this past
May; the theme is youth empowerment for peace.
UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS
Lori Sommerfelt won the prize for best oral presentation by
an undergraduate in the social sciences at the Robyn Rafferty
Mathias Student Research Conference for her research “Views
of Gender in a Transitioning Society: A Content Analysis of
Czech Magazine Advertisements.”
Katherine Streit received an honorable mention in the same
category for her research “Against All Odds: Social Factors & Urban
Education - Southeast DC’s Most Gifted Graduating Seniors.”
American University Department of Sociology Newsletter
6
Erica Austin was hired as a program analyst for the National Park
Service where her duties include serving as the liaison for Girl
Scouts of America, data management, and coordinating public
outreach efforts for the youth programs division. She has launched
an empowerment conference for young women of color ages 13-18.
1he coníerence is designed to inspire creati·itv. con£dence. and ci·ic
responsibility through education in life skills and leadership training.
Sarah Okorie was acknowledged in the US Conference of Mayor’s
annual Hunger and Homelessness Survey for her assistance with
research and writing íor the (itv Pro£le section oí the 2010 lunger
and Homelessness Survey.
Kaleema Sumareh, along with Professor Bette Dickerson,
is a member of the Older Adults and HIV work group of the
DC Department of Health’s HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, STD & TB
Administration (HAHSTA).
Terezinha de Lisieux Q. Fagundes (PhD ’00) was a consultant
and country project representative for the John Hopkins
University’s Center for Communication Programs, funded by
USAID in Maputo, Mozambique. Currently in Brazil, she works
at the Institute of Collective Health at the Federal University
of Bahia, working on health and education and communication
for health research (mostly on evaluation); she is also teaching
and offering technical assistance for the health sector. She has
embarked on post doctoral studies in health education and health
communication evaluation.
Rosemary Erickson (PhD’94) is a forensic sociologist and
president/owner of Athena Research Corporation. She is a
nationally recognized expert on crime and security and often
serves as an expert witness. Her chapter, “Target Selection by
Criminal Groups and Gangs” for the Handbook of Forensic Sociology
and Psychology by Stephen J. Morewitz and Mark Goldstein is
forthcoming later this year.
Esther Fafard (MA ’09) has been accepted into the PhD program
in sociology at Notre Dame.
Jennifer Fish (PhD ’03) is currently chair of the Women’s
Studies Department and an associate professor at Old Dominion
University. She was awarded the “Woman of Distinction” Award
for Education by the YWCA of Hampton Roads. This award is
based on community leadership and civic engagement.
Jeanne Flavin (PhD ’95) is associate professor of sociology at
Fordham University. Her book Our Bodies, Our Crimes: The Policing
of Women’s Reproduction in the United States (NYU Press, 2009), won
the distinguished book award from the Sex and Gender Section of
the American Sociological Association. She presented a talk on her
book at AU in fall 2010.
Jan Marie Fritz (PhD ‘78) received the 2010 American Sociological
Association’s Distinguished Career Award for the Practice of
Sociology.
Melissa Gouge (MA ‘11) will be attending George Mason University
(GMU) in fall 2011 to pursue a PhD in sociology. She received the
prestigious Presidential Scholarship at GMU; only one is awarded to
the College of Humanities & Social Sciences each year.
Enrique Pumar (PhD ‘99) will be the new chair of the
Department of Sociology at Catholic University. He has been
named contributing editor in sociology to the Library of Congress
Handbook of Latin American Studies. He is completing a book,
The Hispanic Presence in the Washington Metropolitan Region: Studies on
Immigration and Urban Development and an article for Sociological Forum.
Eliz Storelli (MA ’09) presented a paper at the International
Sociological Association meetings and is currently teaching and
£nishing coursework in the PhD program at Boston (ollege.
David R. Updegraff (PhD ’79) retired as President of St. Mary’s
School for the Deaf after a 35 year career including 20 years at
Gallaudet University. Since then he traveled the country in an RV
ALUMNI
Tammy Anderson (PhD ’01) received the Charles Horton Cooley
Award from the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction for
her book Rave Culture: The Alteration and Decline of a Music Scene.
She is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and
Criminal Justice at the University of Delaware.
Robert Armstrong (BA ’73) retired in 2009 from the State of
Maryland after 27 years in the area of addictions counseling. He
obtained his master’s degree in psychology at Towson University
in 1982 and his license as a clinical alcohol and drug counselor
in 2002. He is currently director of his own addiction treatment
program in the Baltimore area.
Hamid Awaludin (PhD ’98) currently serves as the Indonesian
ambassador to the Russian Federation.
Connor Brooks (MA’10) has been accepted to Oxford University
and will start the master of science program as a precursor to their
doctor oí philosophv program in sociologv through Nuí£eld (ollege.
Robert Brooks (PhD ’98) is associate professor and chair in the
Department of Criminal Justice at Worcester State University in
Massachusetts. His book, Cheaper by the Hour: Temporary Lawyers
and the Deprofessionalization of the Law was published by Temple
University Press.
Carimanda Baynard (MA’10) is the director of charitable
programs íor a nonpro£t organization where she o·ersees grant´
£nancial management. public relations. e·ent coordination. and
corporate communications.
Anna-Britt Coe (BA’89, MA’98) received her PhD in sociology
(2010) at Umeå University in Sweden, where she also teaches
part-time. Additionally, she is conducting comparative research
in their department of epidemiology and global health on
youth organizations that are engaged in activism on sexual and
reproductive health in Ecuador and Peru.
GRADUATE STUDENTS
American University Department of Sociology Newsletter 7
for a few years, and has settled permanently in Tucson, Arizona. He
owns Success Plus Coaching, which provides career transition and
retirement coaching.
Jennifer Rothchild (PhD ’02) is associate professor of sociology
and anthropology at the University of Minnesota Morris. She
received the 2011 Morris Alumni Association Teaching Award
which honors individual faculty members for outstanding
contributions to undergraduate education.
Michael Weinberger (BA ’07) received his master’s degree in
community planning from the University of Maryland in 2010. He
currently works for the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation
Commission. In this capacity, he works with multiple departments
on improving issues of congestion and transportation management.
He resides in Silver Spring, Maryland, and says that he tries to use
his sociological imagination every day.
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Peggy Wireman (PhD ’77) published Connecting the Dots:
Government, Community and Family with Transaction Publishers in
2009. An e-book with the same publisher, Connecting the Dots: A
Community Action Guide, provides ways communities can organize
to help families meet the challenges of a changing world as they
struggle to get income, food, housing, health care and to raise their
children. She gave a presentation in China at the International
Council of Museums based on her book Partnerships for Prosperity:
Museums and Economic Development (published by the American
Museum Association).
The newsletter is edited by the communications committee:
Monica Biradavolu; Michelle Newton-Francis; Salvador Vidal-Ortiz
Samantha Acebal
Madison Bannon
Kathryn Bohri
Abra Burkett
Andrew Carson
Tia Chang
Taylor Cowey
Staci Cox
Alexandra Dobin
Sarah Fugate
Jennifer Gardiner
Donna Gatesman
Molly Gray
Nirvana Habash
Taryn Hochleitner
Caleb Huey
Kurt Karandy
Abigail Kizer
Laura Klinestive
Catherine Konvalinka
Shelby Legel
Christopher Lewis
Megan Lorenzen
Steven Osisek
Jill Ravey
Natasha Roberts
Emmalyn Smith
Kathleen Smyth-Hammond
Lori Sommerfelt
Rusty Sticha
Katelyn Stoner
Katherine Streit
Alyssa Trempus
Undergraduates
(Majors and Minors)
Congratulations to Our Newest Alumni
Ben Adelman
MA Project: Children’s Health Insurance
Program (CHIP) Website Attributes and
States’ Rates of Children’s Enrollment in
Medicaid and CHIP
Fanta Aw
PhD Dissertation: Building a “National
Civilization” at Home and Abroad:
International Students and Changing U.S.
Political Economy
Sarah Bernal
MA Project: We’ve All Been There:
Linguistic Maneuvering and the
Marginalization of Disclosure
Tom Brenneman
MA Project: An Inquiry of Theory and Practice
in Context: Investigating the Social Movement
Theory of Transcommunality of John Brown
Childs in Relation to No Mas Muertes in the
Arizona, U.S. – Sonora, Mexico Borderlands
Conner Brooks
MA Thesis: Classic Sociological Theory and
the Subprime Mortgage Industry: Marx, Weber
and Durkheim in a Contemporary Context
Maria Bryant
PhD Dissertation: Puerto Rican Women’s
Roles in Independence Nationalism:
Unwavering Women
Kiersten Cooley
MA Thesis: Understanding Recidivism
Among Juvenile Offenders: Perspectives of
“Experts” in Polk County, Iowa
Joanna Dees
MA Thesis: Intersectionality of Race, Gender,
Sexuality and Class: Black Gay and Lesbian
Business Owners in the United States
Tekisha Everette
PhD Dissertation: The State of Race: An
Examination of Race and State Development
of Public Policy
Rahmney Flowers
MA Project: Elder Black Women in the
Sociology of Sexuality
Tara Mancini
MA Thesis: The Role of Social Location in
Shaping Johns’ Perceptions and Reported
Treatment of Female Sex Workers
Hon McBride
PhD Dissertation: Mother-Daughter
Phvsicians: A Oualitati·e Studv oí Maternal
Innuence on Daughters` lamilv. (areer. and
Leisure Choices
Shannon Post
MA 1hesis: lomonormati·itv and Oueer
Resistance: LGBT Activists’ Marriage Discourses
Graduates
American University Department of Sociology Newsletter
8
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Images, clockwise from top left: Michael Bader; Randa Serhan;
John Drysdale and Susan Hoecker-Drysdale
This is an exciting time for the department, especially with the
new area of emphasis in the sociology of health.
In fall 2011, the department welcomes Dr. Michael Bader
(PhD, University of Michigan) and Dr. Randa Serhan (PhD,
Columbia University) as Assistant Professors of Sociology. Dr.
Bader currently holds a post-doctoral position at the Robert
Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholars program
at the University of Pennsylvania. His research interests include
causes and consequences of health disparities, research methods,
residential mobility, and neighborhood contexts. He will teach a
graduate course titled Health and the City in the fall. Dr. Serhan
will lead the Arab Studies program. Most recently, she has served
as Assistant Professor of Sociology at American University of
Beruit. Her research interests include immigration, citizenship,
youth in the Arab world, collective action, and state-building. She
will teach the very popular Arab Societies course.
Many of the exciting changes referenced above are happening
due to the extraordinary leadership of Dr. John Drysdale. Our
department will deeply miss him, as he is now retiring after
serving as department chair for three years, and teaching the
2010-2011 academic year with us. Joining him in retirement is
his life partner Dr. Susan Hoecker-Drysdale, who has been
a Scholar in Residence and faculty advisor to the Alpha Kappa
Delta International Sociology Society since 2007.
We also bid farewell to Dr. Ibtisam Ibrahim. She leaves the
position of director of the Arab Studies program at AU, after
leading its development for three years.
Transitions